Tibetans in Kolkata organise protests

Published: Friday, March 21, 2008, 15:56 [IST]

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Kolkata, Mar 21 : Tibetans here have organised an awareness campaign to make people here aware of Chinese actions in Lhasa.

Some Tibetan college students have come together to form a group called 'Students For A Free Tibet' under the aegis of which they want to carry out campaigns to make the world aware of the problems faced by Tibetans.

The students are not getting much support from the Government in West Bengal, which is ruled by Communist Government. The communist leaders have taken the stand that the trouble in Tibet is an internal matter of China, and the Tibet issue should not cast shadow on the friendly relations between the trans-Himalayan neighbours.

The Kolkata students are keen to make people aware of oppressive actions of China in Tibet.

"In Kolkata we want to make people aware of Tibet because when we talk about Tibet, most of the people have no idea. They tell us that we know the name Tibet, but we don't know what's the situation there. If all the people get aware of things, it will be very easy for us to convey our message internationally," said Velo Gerong, a student.

The students said that they were hoping to garner as much support as possible for their fight against China.

"We want everyone to be aware of the situation in Tibet and help us. We need support from all over the world to fight against the Chinese. China is a very strong country, it's a powerful communist country. We want the entire world to look at the situation in Tibetr," said Kisang Tudu Bhutia, another student.

The crackdown on the protesters in Tibet and neighbouring Chinese provinces, had sparked off calls for a boycott of the forthcoming Olympic Games

Last week a group of about 100 marchers was detained by the police on orders of the Indian government, but a second group, which picked up the route from where the first group was stopped, has been allowed to go ahead.